Adopt-A-Beach Clean-Up Project Collects Approx. 200 Pounds of Trash

Ten Berkeley Heights residents consisting of members of Val’s Valiants, The Warriors team from the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life of Berkeley Heights, and the Berkeley Heights Environmental Commission (BHEC), and their families, recently put on special gloves, and picked up 199 pounds of litter in just under two hours along an “L-shaped” route near the Green Brook tributary, by the intersection of Horseshoe Road and Watchung Way, close to the Runnells Center for Rehabilitation.
Volunteers of all ages participated in this effort, from young children and teens to adults. Participants included Corina Atanase, Mike D’Aquila and his two young sons, Valerie Diamond, Kim Diamond, Karen Hall, Kevin Hall, Richard Leister, and Marlene Sincaglia.
The clean-up was part of the state-wide Adopt-A-Beach program, a joint effort between the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the New Jersey Clean Communities Council that supports volunteers in their efforts to clean up natural waterways such as streams, rivers, and beaches to promote environmental stewardship, preserve the natural environment, and establish a cleaner environment.
The route began at the intersection of Mountain Avenue and Horseshoe Road, continued down Horseshoe Road to Watchung Way, ran along Watchung Way, and ended just beyond the driveway leading up to the Runnells Center for Rehabilitation. In total, the group gathered 135 pounds of recyclables and 64 pounds of garbage along this approximately half mile stretch.
The character of the litter collected reflected an interesting pattern. Plastic beverage bottles were more common along the main roadways, particularly along and off of Horseshoe Road. Small glass liquor bottles and eating utensils, plates, cups, and take-out containers made from plastic, paper, and foam were the items most commonly found adjacent to Watchung Way, just a few feet into the woods near the bottom of the Runnells driveway. Large, more obscure items were more commonly located deeper into the woods along Watchung Way, just beyond the Runnells driveway.  Examples of such items included a bucket of clay pieces, a bed frame, and a bamboo barstool chair with its seat cushion still attached.
Governor Livingston High School sophomore Valerie Diamond, a second-year participant in this clean-up effort and leader of Val’s Valiants, stated that “This trash clean-up is something that needed to get done. People should be able to walk down the street without seeing trash everywhere they look.”
From an environmental and health perspective, the clean-up provided a number of benefits. Litter degrades, causing pollutants to contaminate water runoff from rain and melting snow. This runoff seeps into ground water and flows along streets into our waterways. Ridding areas near waterways of trash and other debris helps to avoid such contamination, resulting in cleaner natural water in local water bodies. This, in turn, promotes a healthier environment that benefits plants, forest animals, marine life, and humans.
According to Environmental Commissioner Richard Leister, “The best way [to keep trash out of streams, is not to create it in the first place.” Leister, who stated that the Environmental Commission supports efforts such as this one to keep trash out of streams, further noted that “If you drop things like plastic bottles in the forest, they do not decompose.”
The Adopt-A-Beach program runs from March 1 to April 30, 2018. If your family, friends, business, organization, or other group is interested in participating in this program, please contact NJCCC at 609-989-5900 or visit njclean.org for more information about volunteering.

(above) Adopt-A-Beach Clean-Up.